


That's What Happens

by Alitomy



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Booker Needs a Therapist ASAP, Booker and Nile Deal with their Dreams, Family Feels, Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, OT5, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, but for now the team are here to help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:20:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26122621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alitomy/pseuds/Alitomy
Summary: The team are worried about the frequency of Nile's dreams, as they didn't occur so often with Booker.Even after two hundred years, there was a lot that Booker had kept from them.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 237





	That's What Happens

Nile’s dreams of the woman drowning at the bottom of the ocean became more frequent after they exiled Booker. They started occurring every night, and then every few hours during sleep. None of them were sleeping through the night with Nile gasping awake every few hours, and they couldn’t do any jobs unless they were well-rested and had some awareness about them. 

Andy was worried. Why was Nile having the dreams every night, multiple times? This had never happened with Booker, who only had them every week or so, waning out to every month as time went on. She watched the couple on the opposite bed as she wrapped an arm around Nile who was shaking like a leaf. They had to pay Booker a visit, they had to figure out how he got the dreams to stop. 

~ 

Booker, God bless him, was absolutely plastered when they arrived at his home in Paris and slammed the door shut when he registered who was on the other side. He knew it wasn’t warranted, and their visit must be important if they’re all here, but he didn’t care. 

It had only been a year and a half. 

He rested his forehead against the door and let out a groan loud enough that it was definitely heard through the wood. He should _not_ have gotten so drunk last night. 

He took a few deep breaths and opened the door once more before walking away to his kitchen, knowing they’d just force themselves in if he didn’t leave the door open. Grabbing an empty glass from the counter, he rinsed out the leftover alcohol and filled it with water, wincing at the loudness of the team walking through his home. Downing the glass, he refilled it once more before turning towards them. 

“So what do I owe the pleasure of your visit to?” He asked, eyeing them up and down, his drunk mind already clearing rapidly. He watched as their eyes followed the mess of this kitchen, bottles and take out boxes everywhere as if he didn’t own a bin. 

He did, but he didn’t have the energy to throw them out once they were finished. 

It’s not like he was entertaining anyone. 

“Nile’s dreaming of Quynh,” Andy said, crossing her arms over her chest but watching him with a careful eye. “Far too often.” 

Booker snorted and refrained from rolling his eyes. “Welcome to the club, Nile. It’s nice to finally have another member. And Andy, she’s dreaming of Quynh because she hasn’t met her, that’s what happens.” 

“But the dreams stopped for you, you got them to stop occurring so frequently,” Joe spoke, a hand placed on Nicky’s lower back. “How?” 

Booker brought the glass of water up to his lips and glanced at the piles upon piles of liquor bottles that littered his kitchen, sighing heavily. “They never went away.” 

“You’re lying, of course they did! You said so yourself!” 

“Don’t yell at me,” Booker snapped, yet he spoke in a calm manner that was unnerving to the others. He would not accept being tormented in his own home, no matter what he did to deserve it. “I only said they went away because I didn’t want to see the forlorn looks on your faces when I mentioned them.”

The team, bar Nile who kept a steady gaze on him, was stunned at the admission. Booker’s grip on his glass tightened, and turned to the young immortal. 

“They don’t go away, Nile. I can’t help you, unless you want a drink.” He gestured to all the bottles. “It’s the only thing I found that can get me to sleep through the night, but it doesn’t mean I don’t dream of her. I just don’t wake up.” 

“You should have told us,” Andy said, moving towards him and only halting when he held up his hand. 

“What would you have done? I didn’t want to be the reason for your pained expression whenever I dared to mention them, so I withheld.” 

“Book,” Andy sighed. 

“Don’t. You couldn’t have done anything. They don’t stop until we meet, remember? Until we meet her, Nile and I will always dream of Quynh. Every night.” Booker stared at their shocked faces before turning to look out the kitchen window. He did what he could to ease their pain of losing their friend, and he had found a way to do that, to not remind them of the woman they lost so long ago, and that she was still down there, alive. 

“So that’s why you were always drinking,” Nicky spoke in a tone that only he possessed. “Not because you wanted to but because it helped with your dreams?” 

Booker nodded once and downed his remaining water. “Nothing else would work. I tried a lot of things.” 

_’Even multiple rounds to the head,’_ he thought, but didn’t speak. The team already thought badly of him, and reminding them of his desires that made him want to betray them was not something he really wanted to share. 

“We.. We could have helped you through it,” Nicky insisted, his voice carrying the slightest hint of shakiness. “You didn’t have to deal with that weight on your shoulders all alone.” 

Booker flinched, the words eerily similar to the ones he spoke as they were strapped to plinths in Merrick’s lab. Within seconds he was engulfed in a massive group hug, one he couldn’t stop nor wanted to. Soft words were whispered in his ears in multiple languages, with varying degrees of fondness. The Frenchman shook slightly, resting his head on whoever’s shoulder was in front of him and he let the tears fall. 

For two hundred years he had carried the heaviness inside of him all alone. He knew what the contents of the dreams did to the team, what it drove him to do, and he wanted nothing but it to stop. He wanted to sleep in a comfortable position and wake up well-rested, abstaining from the booze and the dreams, but he couldn’t. Maybe if he was well-rested, he’d want to start living again after two hundred years. 

“We’ll get through this together, Booker,” Nile said softly and ran a hand through his overgrown hair. “We will. You won’t suffer alone anymore.”

**Author's Note:**

> might of gotten a little off track with the request details but oh well! more booker whump! someone get this man a therapist!!!!
> 
> follow me on tumblr: alit0my


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